The transfer of its European headquarters from Britain to the Netherlands and Amsterdam was decided by the Japanese electronics company Sony. This decision was taken in view of Brexit.
"We will be relocating our European headquarters to Amsterdam by the end of March," a Sony spokesman, Takashi Yida, told AFP today. The aim is to avoid any complications regarding customs procedures, he explained.
Sony Europe will therefore need to set up a new subsidiary in the Netherlands in order to remain within the framework of EU rules after Brexit.
However, it will be the British subsidiary that will manage the group's imports and sales in the Old Continent and Sony employees will not be relocated.
"The only change will be the change of location where it will be registered", the headquarters of the electronics group's subsidiary in Europe, insisted its representative.
The move is aimed at the company avoiding a number of customs and regulatory controls, especially in the case of Brexit without an agreement, a possibility that became stronger after the rejection of the plan negotiated by Prime Minister Theresa May and Brussels.
Panasonic made a similar decision last year, mainly for tax reasons.
Many financial companies, such as Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Nomura Holdings, Daiwa Securities and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, have also made it clear that they will relocate their headquarters in Europe from London to other European cities.
Japanese companies have invested a total of more than $ 60 billion in the UK, according to statistics for 2018. It is 879 in number, among them are companies - giants of the automotive industry such as Honda, Nissan and Toyota, and employ 142.000 people.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who toured Europe in early January, warned of the consequences Brexit could have for many groups.
"Our country considers that, in order to minimize these consequences, it is out of the question to have guarantees for legal stability, by implementing a transitional period, under transparent and predictable conditions," he underlined.
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